Air Warfare (Italy) - 1914-1918-Online. International Encyclopedia of

Air Warfare (Italy)
By Fabio Caffarena
Italy entered the war in 1915 with just a few dozen airplanes and more or less the same
number of pilots, however, during the conflict, the accelerated development of the force
made it necessary to build thousands of airplanes and to train thousands of aviators. Mass
production of vehicles and men is an important aspect of modern war, which we can
appreciate in the experiences of many soldiers who left the trenches to becomes aviators.
Thanks to the endeavours of characters such as Francesco Baracca, Gabriele d’Annunzio
and others, the myth of aviation spread across Italy, and was exploited by Fascism as a
means of constructing a narrative and for political propaganda.
Table of Contents
1 The development of the air force
2 Building airplanes, training aviators
3 Air warfare between myth and reality
4 Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Citation
1. The development of the air force
In May 1915, on the eve of Italy entering the war, the aviation of the Royal Army had yet to be
organized, and could only count on around eighty airplanes and a few dozen pilots, beside the few air
vehicles assigned to the Royal Navy. The Italian armed forces were mostly equipped with French
Blériot, Farman and Nieuport airplanes, which were semi-handmade, slow, still unreliable and
inadequate for war. At the time, the opinions of Giulio Douhet (1869-1930) regarding the strategic
importance of the air component in modern wars – ideas which he had worked on since 1910 and
were destined, in the post-war period, to become the most advanced theory regarding air power on
the entire international scenario[1] – were unable to change the General Staff’s substantial scepticism
regarding the operative potential of the aviation. This scepticism was also motivated by the hardly
exceptional results obtained by the aviation in Libya between 1911 and 1912, during the Italian-Turkish
war.[2]
Starting in the summer of 1914, nations involved in the conflict had considerably reinforced their
aviations, thus forcing Italy to bridge the delay in prevision of its entrance into the war. Therefore, in
January 1915, as substitution for the Aviator Battalion created in 1912, the Military Aviation Corp, was
founded. Autonomous from the Corpo del Genio, which the aviation services had belonged to up until
that point, the Aviation Corp responded to the Ministry of War. It was composed of the General
Aviation Direction entrusted to Colonel Maurizio Mario Moris (1860-1944) – who had already been
Head of the Aviation Inspectorate – of the Airship Crew and Aerostiers Aviation Command, of the
Military Aviation Technical Direction, of the Central Aviation Institute presided by Captain Arturo
Crocco (1877-1968) and of three battalions (airship crew members, aerostiers, aviation squads).
At the same time of the creation of the Military Aviation Corp, funds for strengthening the aviation were
quadrupled and amounted to 16.5 million Lire. Between 1915 and 1918, costs for the purchase of
devices and motors went from 17 to 600 million, and totalled at 1 billion Lire.[3] This was a
considerable expense, necessary to sustain the thousands of missions carried out by dozens of
fighter, bombardier, reconaissance and defence squads dislocated across circa forty bases between
the Friuli and Veneto regions, and others in the Brescia area, on the Adriatic Coast, from Liguria to
Sicily, as protection for objectives considered to be attackable by the Austro-Hungarian aviations.
Starting in the autumn of 1914, the "Regulations for War Service" were issued, limiting the use of
airplanes to explorative missions. It was not by chance that a large part of the available aviation
squads were dislocated to Friuli to support ground forces, and that, when Italy entered the war, the
aviation was assigned to observation and reconnaissance tasks along the main transportation
arteries of the eastern border (Cormons-Gorizia-Aidussina; Tolmino-Krainburg; GoriziaLaibach/Lubiana and Monfalcone-Sesana-Adelsberg/Postumia). This way it could provide information
for the artillery and infantry, while the residual bombardment-related tasks excluded actions involving
residential areas.
The "Regulations for the use of Aviator Squads", issued in May 1915, substantially confirmed the
aforementioned tasks, and the use of the aviation for bombardments was introduced by the
"Regulations for Offensive Actions with Airplanes", in July of that same year. At the same time, in the
ambit of air fighting, even before the notes issued on 6 June 1918 by ace pilot Pier Ruggero Piccio
(1880-1965) for the temporary instruction for the use of fighter squads, pilots had learned the secrets
of their job by emulating more experienced pilots, carrying out missions in a rather hands-on tactical
context, based on contingencies and daily flight exercise.
During the first days of the war, only a few Italian airships were involved in offensive actions, while
airplanes were used for reconnaissance missions. This was also due to the difficulties involved in
deploying them near mountain chains characterized by weather conditions that were often critical for
flight operations, especially for the airplanes of the time, with their fragile structures and weak
propellers. During the night between 28-29 May, the first Italian airship offensive actions in enemy
territory commenced. On 30 May, a P. 4 airship, led by a crew from the Royal Navy, struck the
railway station and arsenal of Pula, and the action was repeated between 6-7 June. The Austrian
aviation responded with disturbance operations in the rears, by bombarding flying fields, but also
cities, above all Venice. This caused minor material damage, but significant repercussions on the
population’s morale.
The first air duel between an Austrian biplane and an Italian reconnaissance airplane dates back to
the end of June 1915. The clash highlighted the shortcomings of the Italian aviation, given that the
Austrian plane was equipped with a machine gun, while the two Italian aviators could only count on a
rifle. Indeed, these first actions highlighted the organizational and technological lacunas of the Italian
aviation, a situation which led to rapid re-organization and encouraged the precocious substitution of
obsolete airplanes with more efficient ones, better suited for the required tasks.
During the war, the strategic doctrine and tactical use of air forces developed alongside the
technology and specialization of the vehicles, increasingly efficient in terms of speed (the more
modern fighters could fly at over 200 Km/h) and capacity (the most powerful bomber planes could
transport more than a ton of bombs).
Between 1915 and 1916, the theory of mass use of aviation forces began to establish itself, and
included the possibility of bombing cities. Starting in the summer of 1915, the arrival of the heavy
Caproni bomber airplanes allowed the Italian aviation to carry out medium and long range enterprises:
thus, in Slovenia, during that August, the aviation struck the station of Ajševica and, on 7 October,
Kostanjevica, thanks to one of the first mass air raids.
On 18 February 1916, seven tri-motor planes took off from the field of Aviano to conduct a raid on
Ljubljana as retaliation for the bombing of Milan (which had taken place three days earlier). During
their return flight, they were attacked by Austrian fighters: the plane leading the formation was struck
by numerous shots and two members of the crew. First pilot Luigi Bailo (1882-1916) and
observer/machine gunner Alfredo Barbieri (1869-1916) were killed, while the surviving pilot, Oreste
Salomone (1879-1918), despite having been wounded on the head, managed to return to Italian
territory and land on the field of Gonars. For this enterprise, immortalized at the beginning of March on
the cover of the weekly periodical La Domenica del Corriere and glorified by the most prestigious
writers of all the national newspapers, Salomone became the first aviator to be assigned a gold
medal for military valour.
Starting from the summer of 1916, bombing missions involved an increasing number of airplanes,
and one of the most massive operations, above the city of Fiume, used circa twenty Caproni. From
1917, when the airships began revealing unsurmountable operative limits, the evermore frequent
operations conducted by airplanes became decisive for bombing operations. In 1917, the Italian
aviation completed 1,298 missions (fifty-two of which by airships) and dropped 254 tons of bombs,
while 2,730 missions were carried out during 1918 (114 of which by airships) for a total of 491 tons of
bombs. During the battle for the Piave alone, fought between 15-25 June 1918, the aviation of the
Royal Army carried out 3,895 flights, using an average of 450 airplanes per day, and dropping a total
of over ninety-eight tons of bombs.[4] In 1917, the aerial duels between Italian and Austro-Hungarian
planes amounted to 700, while between January and August 1918, no less than 2,225 duels took
place.[5] Overall, between 1915 and 1918, just the Royal Navy Aviation, subjected since 1916 to the
Submarine and Aviation Inspectorate, carried out 2,177 bombing operations (fifty-six of which by
airships), 3,467 reconnaissance and supply missions, 1,107 defence missions, 9,433 exploration
missions and 10,385 operations to defend naval traffic, for a total of 26,569 missions, increasing from
305 in 1915 to 16,814 in 1918.[6]
At the end of the conflict, the air component of the Italian army was generally on the par with the other
allied aviations, and turned out to be decisive for the victory.
2. Building airplanes, training aviators
Between 1915 and 1918, numerous Italian mechanical factories – including small sized ones –
allured by the significant profits guaranteed by the aeronautical industry contributed to the immense
productive effort which led to the construction of circa 12,000 military airplanes of various typologies
(from 382 airplanes produced in 1915 to 6.518 in 1918). A fighter plane had reached a cost
amounting to 50,000-60,000 Lire, while a bomber plane cost Lire 200,000-215,000 Lire.[7] During the
war, this industrial segment, initially committed to building airplanes under license, mostly French,
progressively liberated its operations from technological and productive subjection to its Allies of the
Entente, and managed to develop valid national products such as the large Caproni bombardiers, the
first vehicles specifically conceived for this task to be used during the conflict.
Specialized workshops, which increased from six to eighteen, assembled 24,000 motors, more than
30,000 propellers, while the repairs and components branch was practically created from scratch,
and gave birth to numerous firms. In 1918 the industry provided the aviation with 264 light guns, 4,700
machine guns (tripling the items provided in 1916 and 1917), 900 tons of bombing explosives,
500,000 bullets for light guns and more than 5 million cartridges for machine guns. All in all, these
were not large numbers, considering that France and Great Britain produced more than 50,000
airplanes and that Germany built no less than 48,000, yet these data testify the rapid expansion of the
Italian aeronautic sector, above all if compared to the 4,800 airplanes produced by Austria-Hungary
between 1914 and 1918.[8]
In Italy, the few hundreds of workers employed in the sector in 1915 became tens of thousands by the
end of the war. In all countries at war, the conflict activated a gigantic "flight workshop", an
unstoppable assembly line to build evermore technologically refined air vehicles, but also to train
adequately prepared crews, enrolled en masse to support the needs of the army.
For many soldiers, above all among the Italian ones, who came from popular social classes and
humble jobs (such as mechanics, car drivers, engine drivers, but also peasants, confectioners,
harness makers, decorators, mattress makers, fishermen, errand boys, cheese makers), enrolling in
the aviation was a concrete possibility to escape the follies of the frontline. It was an opportunity not to
fester in the mud of the trenches and to escape the alienation of modern war, as well as the
anonymity of mass demise. This does not mean that flying was less risky, as demonstrated by the
989 Italian aviators to have died in combat: 225 were killed in action, 693 were killed in accidents and
seventy-one died due to other causes.[9]
The personal dossiers of the Royal Army aviators, held within the Historical Office of the General
Aeronautic Staff in Rome, are an important resource for information. They are capable of providing
focus on an essential component of modern war – military aviation – whose impact cannot be limited
to the appearance of aircrafts on the battlefields, but needs to also be considered from the point of
view of the human factor. During the war, 7,500 aviators were trained in Italy, of which 5,193 became
pilots (1,744 officers, 855 non-commissioned officers, 877 graduates and no less than 1,697
common soldiers). The role of observer was reserved, except for a few exceptions, to officers
equipped with specific preparation, while only soldiers, graduates and non-commissioned officers
became machine gunners. If, aboard the planes, observers and machine gunners reflected a rigid
class division, pilots instead came from a strongly heterogeneous extraction, and some of them were
able to operate a true and proper social ascent.[10]
The available documents feature extremely interesting information, such as that regarding the
innovative enrolment modalities of flight crews, selected via standardized psycho-physical and
aptitude criteria. The soldier-machine, delineated by Father Agostino Gemelli (1878-1959) in his
essay Our soldier published in 1917, found its most extreme declination in the aviator, far from the
romantic dandy "knights of the sky" profile which asserted itself during the war. The goal of the wellknown Milanese psychologist and priest was to guarantee the serial training of reliable military pilots,
and it was precisely Gemelli who established, via his studies based on analogous researches carried
out across Europe, the psycho-physical characteristics required from candidate aviators.[11] Tests
regarded above all the candidates’ speed of reaction to external stimuli, their capacity to remain alert
and concentrated, scarce emotionality, while their physique was not to present any deficits in the
circulatory and respiratory systems.
During the candidate’s medical visits, carried out with the aid of the first and futuristic flight
simulators, prepared by the Head of the Aeronautic Psycho-physiology Laboratory of Turin, Amedeo
Herlitzka (1872-1949), doctors were frequently able to detect the after-effects of previous pathologies
caused by harsh life conditions during the war and the signs of eventual wounds suffered during
combat. However, the pressing need to boost the aeronautic component, especially during certain
phases of the war, led to a flexible application of the selective parameters. Some individuals were
declared apt to fly despite visual, auditive or vestibular deficits, or even despite invalidating
disablements; this tolerance was countered by a high percentage of dismissed candidates who were
sent back to their respective units.
Commanders soon began having doubts that some pilot apprentices were delaying their licenses in
order to stay away from the frontline for as long as possible. In truth, a series of organizational
problems within the schools extended the set standard training hours to twenty-five hours of flight,
and impacted significantly on the aviation budget. The formation of a single pilot cost more or less
25,000 Lire.[12] A note from the General Aeronautic Direction, dated 5 February 1916 and held within
the Aeronautic Historical Office, reveals that only 60 percent of the apprentices obtained their license.
Data regarding the complementary apprentice officer school of Caserta are even more detailed: out
of 1,150 apprentices enrolled in the pilot course held between 15 January and 3 March 1918, 352 (31
percent) abandoned the course due to service requirements and 112 were declared inadequate (9
percent). In the end, only 686 apprentices obtained their license (60 percent). The next course,
between 10 April and 30 April 1918, gave even worse results: out of 1,142 apprentices, only 624 were
considered adequate (54 percent).
In order to increase the schools’ productivity, some even auspicated that the training be privatized
and entrusted to the Gazzetta dello Sport – a newspaper that was already active in the organization of
the main sporting events of the time – for the purpose of stimulating competition and rivalry between
the students.[13] This proposal, which was more than a mere provocation, actually revealed the unsevered – despite all attempts by the military apparatus – bond between aviation, aviators and an
agonistic dimension of flight which had spread across Italy, ever since crowds had gathered in the
vast open areas which hosted the very first Italian flight competitions (such as those of Brescia in
1909).[14]
3. Air warfare between myth and reality
The aviation, besides proving to be an eclectic and decisive offensive and defensive weapon during
the conflict, also became an effective propaganda tool in all the countries at war. In Italy, endeavours
planned and carried out by Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863-1938) precociously imposed the aviation as a
media weapon: on 7 August 1915, the poet-soldier and his pilot Giuseppe Miraglia (1883-1915) were
protagonists in the first demonstrational air action, and flew over Trieste in an FBA seaplane carrying
200 leaflets, which were dropped on the city. A similar accomplishment was repeated by d’Annunzio
on 20 September, on the city of Trent, aboard a Maurice-Farman MF 1914 piloted by Ermanno
Beltramo. Following these first flights, in August 1917 d’Annunzio led the attack on Pula by a large
squad of over thirty vehicles, flying on a Caproni piloted by Maurizio Pagliano (1890-1917) and Luigi
Gori (1894-1917). In early October 1917, he led an attack against the Dalmatian base of Kotor, an
important Austro-Hungarian military port, with a squad of fourteen bombardiers which had left from
the base of Gioia del Colle in Puglia. Finally, on 9 August 1918, aboard a plane piloted by Natale Palli
(1896-1919), the poet was in charge of the squad - comprising seven SVA airplanes - which reached
Vienna and symbolically bombed it with thousands of propaganda leaflets.[15] The flight over Vienna,
which took place a few months before the end of the conflict, is a fundamental episode for the Italian
military aviation tradition, a paradigmatic) event to understand the mechanisms of the construction of
the myth of national aviation after the Great War.
In general, the success of the aviation was determined not only by highly symbolic endeavours, but
by factors regarding the technical development and utilization modalities of the aircrafts: in particular,
the arrival on the scene of efficient fighter planes, conceived to protect the slow bombardiers and
attack the enemy, significantly increased the popularity of the aviation.
Starting from 1916, this type of airplane was strongly developed and equipped with fixed machine
guns that could be used directly by the pilot, making the presence of a second crew member
superfluous. Fighter pilots, now driving fast single-seat planes, capable of accomplishing daring
manoeuvres, earned a decisive operative role and also asserted themselves as media figures. Thus,
the myth of the winged knight was born, a soloist capable of daredevil and spectacular actions. This
was the case of Giovanni Ancillotto (1896-1924), who, near the end of 1917, rammed an Austrian
Draken aerostat by passing through its flaming shell. For this almost suicidal action, Ancillotto
became a national hero, obtaining the Golden Medal for Military Valour and, as had happened to
Oreste Salomone, was featured on one of the most famous wartime La Domenica del Corriere
covers.
Each nation had its own Aces, i.e. pilots who could boast the shooting down of at least five enemy
aircrafts – recognized by specific commissions. The German "Red Baron", Manfred von Richthofen
(1892-1918), shot down eighty airplanes and is still today a universally known icon. French pilot René
Fonck (1894-1953) shot down seventy-five enemies, British pilot Edward Corringham “Mick” Mannock
(1887-1918) shot down seventy-three, Canadian pilot William Avery “Billy” Bishop (1894-1956) shot
down seventy-two, Austro-Hungarian pilot Godwin Brumowski (1889-1936) shot down thirty-five and
North American pilot Edward “Eddie” Rickenbacker (1890-1973) shot down twenty-six enemy
aircrafts. Circa forty Italian pilots earned the title of Ace and the most famous, Francesco Baracca
(1888-1918), was shot down on 19 June 1918, after having won thirty-four duels.[16]
Germany was the first country to attract the public’s attention toward air fighters, followed by France
and other countries, with the exception of England, which initially appeared to oppose the creation of
personalities and the glorification of aviators’ endeavours within the press. Military pilots asserted
themselves as heroes with uncommon technical skills and moral virtues (courage, loyalty,
patriotism), fully at ease on the covers of magazines dedicated to the new war-aviation sport. A
modern hero who did not refute the spotlight and the money prizes promoted by the press and largely
funded by industrial companies involved in the production of war materials such as, in the case of
Italy, Fiat and Pirelli.
The prize competitions for fighter plane pilots and bombardier crews were as popular as sporting
events and contributed to make the pilots famous, thanks to their fascinating ability to master
powerful and devastating flying machines. The squad badges applied on the aircrafts expressed
fellowship between members of the same team, yet this exposure translated into a widespread and
narcissistic attention to image, which manifested itself in the aesthetic personalization of aircrafts
with large personal icons which made the aviators immediately recognizable. These symbols
denoted the physical and symbolic union between man and machine, and liberated subjective identity
from the anonymity of the war and of mass deaths in the trenches. With regard to the Italian aviation,
among the most famous personal insignia was the rampant horse of Francesco Baracca, chosen by
virtue of his military past in the Chivalry Corps; this symbol was later adopted, with a few variations,
by the Ferrari automobile house, and is still today an extremely popular icon.
In the aeronautic bases and during missions, image-related necessities and private interests became
entwined with combat duties. Photographs portraying pilots are extremely functional if we are to
appreciate the unprecedented status as patriotic-sporting champion created by air warfare and
spread by the press, above all with regard to hero-soloists aboard fighter planes, an image that was
particularly suitable for mythicization.
Aviators literally never dismissed their role as men of the air, due to their flight activities, but also
because they intended to parade their position, as demonstrated by the habit of wearing their flight
jacket even when off service, despite the Command’s reiterated attempts to ban this small, yet hardly
martial, vanity. However, not all pilots adapted to the stress of air warfare or were inclined to prima
donna behaviour. Some, both physically and psychologically exhausted by the tension caused by
dangerous air missions, began showing unequivocal pathologies due to nervous tension. During the
Great War, in all nations involved, a high percentage of neurosis was recorded among air fighters.
The stories of many common aviators have gone lost in the epopee of national aeronautics embodied
by Gabriele d’Annunzio, Francesco Baracca[17] and a handful of other Aces. If we are to dig under the
imaginary aviation monument of the Great War, we must redefine the borders of a myth which
appears to be less monolithic than a rooted celebratory narration, fed for decades by historiography
and by the media, would have us believe. For this purpose, one may choose to investigate the stories
of unknown aviators who are not featured in the pantheon of the more famous pilots.[18]
4. Conclusion
Besides the legendary dimension bound to the names of a few very well-known "knights of the sky",
becoming an aviator was often a temporary – and sometimes traumatic – experience, in some cases
interrupted during the conflict, and in others after the war due to military demobilization. At the end of
1918 some aviators asked to be dismissed – revealing their intentions to hide within the aviation -,
while for others, dismissal was a painful sacrifice determined by complement cuts or family
necessities. Few aviators remained in service in Italy, while many returned to their previous jobs, thus
ending an experience, both physical and mental, destined to leave an indelible mark on their lives.
In 1923, Fascism re-founded the Aeronautic Corps, elevating it to the level of autonomous corps
(Royal Aeronautics). The heritage of the Great War’s aviation endeavours allowed the political system
to use the new Arma Azzurra to spread the nationalistic religion of the Motherland and to manifest the
modern, feisty and dynamic Fascist spirit. The story of aeronautic records and air crossings became
one of the regime’s most efficacious fables, destined to rapidly dissolve when facing the test of the
Second World War.[19]
Fabio Caffarena, University of Genoa
Section Editor: Nicola Labanca
Translator: Benjamin Ginsborg
Notes
1. ↑ Curami, Andrea/Rochat, Giorgio: Giulio Douhet. Scritti (1901-1915),
Rome 1993; Douhet, Giulio: Il dominio dell’aria, Rome 1921; Lehmann,
Eric: La guerra dell’aria. Giulio Douhet, stratega impolitico, Bologna 2013.
2. ↑ Botti, Ferruccio/Cermelli, Mario: La teoria della guerra aerea in Italia,
Rome 1989, pp. 3-219.
3. ↑ Bompiani, Giorgio/Prepositi, Clemente: Le ali della guerra, Milan 1931,
p. 316.
4. ↑ Miana, Paolo: La specialità bombardieri dell’aviazione italiana nella
Grande Guerra, in Montinaro, Giancarlo/Salvetti, Marina (eds.):
L'Aeronautica italiana nella I Guerra mondiale, Rome 2010, p. 240; Di
Martino, Basilio: L' aviazione italiana nella grande guerra, Milan 2011, pp.
568-569 and 572; Apostolo, Giorgio et al., Ali italiane, vol. 1 (1908-1922),
Milan 1978, p. 262.
5. ↑ Massignani, Alessandro: La guerra aerea sul fronte italiano, in Ferrari,
Paolo (ed.): La Grande Guerra aerea, Novale 1994, pp. 41-43.
6. ↑ Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Marina, Cronistoria documentata della
guerra marittima italo-austriaca, fascicolo VII, L’aviazione marittima
durante la guerra, Rome 1927; Di Martino, L’aviazione italiana 2011, pp.
573 and 577.
7. ↑ Apostolo et al., Ali italiane, volume 1 (1908-1922), Milan 1978, p. 288.
8. ↑ Bompiani/Prepositi, Le ali della guerra 1931, p. 317; Porro, Felice: La
guerra nell’aria, Milan 1936, pp. 419-20; Apostolo et al., Ali italiane 1978,
p. 286; Di Martino, L' aviazione italiana 2011, p. 559 and Degli Esposti,
Fabio: L’industria aeronautica degli Imperi centrali, in Ferrari, Paolo (ed.):
La Grande Guerra aerea 1915-1918. Battaglie, industrie,
bombardamenti, assi, aeroporti, Novale 1994, pp. 141-182.
9. ↑ Varriale, Paolo: I caduti dell’aviazione italiana nella Grande Guerra,
Rome 2014.
10. ↑ Caffarena, Fabio: Dal fango al vento. Gli aviatori italiani dalle origini alla
Grande Guerra, Turin 2010, pp. 90-103.
11. ↑ Gemelli, Agostino: Sull’applicazione dei metodi psico-fisici all’esame
dei candidati all’Aviazione Militare, in Rivista di psicologia 3 (1917), pp.
157-58.
12. ↑ Apostolo et al., Ali italiane 1978, p. 288.
13. ↑ Per una iniezione di entusiasmo alle fucine di piloti, in Nel Cielo 10 (10
August 1918), p. 158.
14. ↑ Demetz, Peter: The Air Show at Brescia (1909), New York City 2002.
15. ↑ Alegi, Gregory (ed.): In volo per Vienna 1993; Caffarena, Fabio:
Vienna, 9 August 1918: d’Annunzio vola sulla città, in Luzzatto, Sergio/
Pedullà, Gabriele (eds.): Atlante storico della letteratura italiana 2012, pp.
494-498.
16. ↑ Guerrini, Irene/Pluviano, Marco: Francesco Baracca. Una vita al volo,
Udine 2000.
17. ↑ An enormous monument was built in 1936, in honour of Baracca, in his
city of birth, Lugo, in the municipality of Ravenna, and constitutes the
most significant and symbolically relevant example of this kind.
18. ↑ Varriale, Paolo: Italian Aces of World War 1, Oxford, 2009.
19. ↑ Lehmann, Eric: Le ali del potere, Turin 2010; Caffarena,
Fabio/Stiaccini,Carlo: Chi vola vale. L’immagine della Regia Aeronautica
nell’archivio del generale Cagna, Rome 2013.
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Various authors: Francesco Baracca: tra storia, mito e tecnologia: atti della giornata di studi
organizzata dal Comune di Lugo di Romagna e dallo Stato Maggiore Areonautica, Rome 2008:
Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Aeronautica.
Varriale, Paolo: Italian aces of World War 1, Oxford 2009: Osprey Publishing.
Varriale, Paolo: I caduti dell'aviazione italiana nella Grande Guerra, Rome 2014: Ufficio Storico
Stato Maggiore Aeronautica.
Article Last Modified
08 December 2014
Citation
Caffarena, Fabio: Air Warfare (Italy), in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First
World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan
Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2014-10-08. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.15463/ie1418.10264. Translated by: Ginsborg, Benjamin
License
© 2014 This text is licensed under: CC by-NC-ND 3.0 Germany - Attribution, Non-commercial, No
Derivative Works.

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